Happy Friday the 13th for the second month in a row.
“I’m as mad as a hatter and I’m not going to take you any more...”
You may or may not recognize that as a corruption of the famous line screamed by apoplectic news anchor Howard Beale in Network (1976):
When the madman utters the climactic line, he is exhorting the Everyman, the Silent Majority impassively assembled in the anemic blue glow of their living room television sets, to literally get up out of their seats and go scream their outrage out their windows.
Paddy Chayefsky, the creator of this timeless American character, explained his attitude about Network like this:
I was reminded of the Network rant scene for the umpteenth time recently while checking out “Silver Spring, Singular,” a downcounty blog that attracts a lot of attention because of its whip-smart & candid writing, topical currency, and its connectedness to the goings-on of greater Silver Spring. Plus, it’s got plenty of photos and graphics and the blogger keeps comments open to Anonymice, which makes things livelier and more engaging.
SSS introduces a recent post with the following:
SSS accompanies the post with a movie still from the Angry Man classic Falling Down (1993), which left me scratching my head over the madman movie mixed metaphors.
Springular sure got that right. Downtown Bethesda invests a lot of money in attracting the right crowd of self-actualizing professionals and big spenders. BUP and friends do a bang-up job of keeping baggy-pants, saggy-seat crews out of their scrubbed urban districts.
The most aggressive people you’ll encounter in Bethesda generally include the Type-A jerks that jockey for the plummest parking spots in the downtown garages, the aging frat boy drunks that frequent “Caddies” on Cordell Avenue, and the Valet Parking Mafia that extort fat tips out of west-county and NWDC gentry flush with an embarrassment of disposable income. While some of these potential rowdies may threaten bodily harm if you make the mistake of wasting their time or delaying their gratification, none of them is very likely to break out in fisticuffs with you.
Hey now, once Seal starts singing some of his more provocative lyrics, what if the crowd starts to take it a tad too literally:
Now back to more madcap madness:
And “Thayer Avenue” said this before I added my damage to the mix.
Indeed!
Well, here in the south-central loco-en-MoCo ’hood of west Wheaton, I guess we would have to sport blue bandannas to this cultural event, as MS-13 claims to be the dominant “click” in these here parts.
Yeah, so I’ve heard that the AFI Silver is trying to make it in this recession just like a lot of others arts-and-culture institutions. May I suggest the following quadruple feature, curated by myself:
“The All-American Angry Man Film Marathon”
…featuring conniptive classics from the 1970s through the 2000s…
Network — 1970s
Ruthless People — 1980s
Falling Down — 1990s
Gran Torino — 2000s
Why, this could even be the basis for yet another AFI superlative list...
...“100 Years, 100 Rages” !
“I’m as mad as a hatter and I’m not going to take you any more...”
You may or may not recognize that as a corruption of the famous line screamed by apoplectic news anchor Howard Beale in Network (1976):
“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more...”
He builds up to this crescendo after saying other things that eerily resonate with our current climate of anxiety:
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.
It’s a depression.
Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job.
....
Banks are going bust.
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it.
....
We know things are bad, worse than bad, they’re crazy.
It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore.
We sit in the house and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller and all we say is,
‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms ... just leave us alone.’”
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.
It’s a depression.
Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job.
....
Banks are going bust.
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere that seems to know what to do and there’s no end to it.
....
We know things are bad, worse than bad, they’re crazy.
It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don’t go out anymore.
We sit in the house and slowly the world we’re living in is getting smaller and all we say is,
‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms ... just leave us alone.’”
When the madman utters the climactic line, he is exhorting the Everyman, the Silent Majority impassively assembled in the anemic blue glow of their living room television sets, to literally get up out of their seats and go scream their outrage out their windows.
Paddy Chayefsky, the creator of this timeless American character, explained his attitude about Network like this:
“People say to me: ‘Jesus, you moved into some pretty surreal satire.’ I say: ‘No, I still write realistic stuff. It’s the world that’s gone nuts, not me. It’s the world that's turned into a satire." We never lied. Everything in the movie is true—with some extensions. It's very hard to describe simply and realistically what is going on without being grotesque. I think the movie is right now. .... I think the American people deserve some truth—at least as much truth as we can give them—instead of pure entertainment or pure addiction.”—“Chayefsky: ‘Network Is True’,” Time, 12/13/1976
I was reminded of the Network rant scene for the umpteenth time recently while checking out “Silver Spring, Singular,” a downcounty blog that attracts a lot of attention because of its whip-smart & candid writing, topical currency, and its connectedness to the goings-on of greater Silver Spring. Plus, it’s got plenty of photos and graphics and the blogger keeps comments open to Anonymice, which makes things livelier and more engaging.
SSS introduces a recent post with the following:
“I don’t know about on yours, but the locals on my neighborhood message board are mad as hell about the ‘melee’ in [downtown Silver Spring] this past Saturday and they aren't going to take it anymore!”
[Acronym expansion, formatting, & linking all added.]
[Acronym expansion, formatting, & linking all added.]
SSS accompanies the post with a movie still from the Angry Man classic Falling Down (1993), which left me scratching my head over the madman movie mixed metaphors.
SSS: “... the regularly expressed opinion that ‘it's just like that in Bethesda’ is total bulls***. Anyone who says this has clearly never been to Bethesda.”
Springular sure got that right. Downtown Bethesda invests a lot of money in attracting the right crowd of self-actualizing professionals and big spenders. BUP and friends do a bang-up job of keeping baggy-pants, saggy-seat crews out of their scrubbed urban districts.
The most aggressive people you’ll encounter in Bethesda generally include the Type-A jerks that jockey for the plummest parking spots in the downtown garages, the aging frat boy drunks that frequent “Caddies” on Cordell Avenue, and the Valet Parking Mafia that extort fat tips out of west-county and NWDC gentry flush with an embarrassment of disposable income. While some of these potential rowdies may threaten bodily harm if you make the mistake of wasting their time or delaying their gratification, none of them is very likely to break out in fisticuffs with you.
123cartoon on WashingtonPost.com quips:
“The ‘Stop the Violence’ concert is over. You may now return to your previous violent nature. Thank you for coming.”
“The ‘Stop the Violence’ concert is over. You may now return to your previous violent nature. Thank you for coming.”
| »»» | Entrance not for everyone. For madmen only. | ««« |
SSS: “Also, while people certainly have every right to be upset, some use this as an excuse to prop up their bogus theories about how these miscreants will invade Silver Spring throughout the week once the Fillmore is open. Yes, because those Seal (actual Fillmore performer) crowds can get completely out of hand.”
Hey now, once Seal starts singing some of his more provocative lyrics, what if the crowd starts to take it a tad too literally:
“But we’re never gonna survi-i-i-i-ve unless, we get a little crazy...”
Now back to more madcap madness:
Thayer Avenue said [on SSS’s blog]:
How did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the crazy people to the comment board? I never cease to be amazed.
How did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the crazy people to the comment board? I never cease to be amazed.
And “Thayer Avenue” said this before I added my damage to the mix.
I splenically snorted in return:
“‘Thayer Avenue’? Perhaps this proud member of the Nouveau Silver Spring gentry should try on the address and blogger moniker ‘Woodmont Avenue.’ It appears that Thayer doesn’t much care for the untidy opinings of us ‘crazy’ east-county riff-raff.
Springular, how did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the downcounty gentry to act as such wet blankets on the comment board? I never cease to be crazed, er, amazed.”
[more crazy stuff followed this jabbering....]
“‘Thayer Avenue’? Perhaps this proud member of the Nouveau Silver Spring gentry should try on the address and blogger moniker ‘Woodmont Avenue.’ It appears that Thayer doesn’t much care for the untidy opinings of us ‘crazy’ east-county riff-raff.
Springular, how did you gain such a penchant for drawing in the downcounty gentry to act as such wet blankets on the comment board? I never cease to be crazed, er, amazed.”
[more crazy stuff followed this jabbering....]
Thayer Avenue said:
“Wow, Sleepless. I make an off-handed, generalized comment and you end up attacking me, The X-Files, *and* linking to classic Bernstein all in one fell swoop? Very impressive.
I think my work here is done!”
“Wow, Sleepless. I make an off-handed, generalized comment and you end up attacking me, The X-Files, *and* linking to classic Bernstein all in one fell swoop? Very impressive.
I think my work here is done!”
Indeed!
Springvale Roader informs us:
“Well folks, this is timely. This coming Sunday and Monday, AFI will be screening the documentary, ‘Crips and Bloods: Made in America.’ http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/events.aspx#crips
I plan on wearing my red bandanna...or should I go with blue?”
“Well folks, this is timely. This coming Sunday and Monday, AFI will be screening the documentary, ‘Crips and Bloods: Made in America.’ http://www.afi.com/silver/new/nowplaying/events.aspx#crips
I plan on wearing my red bandanna...or should I go with blue?”
Thomas Hardman weighs in:
“I was more hoping for a screening of ‘Lord of the Flies’.”
“I was more hoping for a screening of ‘Lord of the Flies’.”
Well, here in the south-central loco-en-MoCo ’hood of west Wheaton, I guess we would have to sport blue bandannas to this cultural event, as MS-13 claims to be the dominant “click” in these here parts.
Yeah, so I’ve heard that the AFI Silver is trying to make it in this recession just like a lot of others arts-and-culture institutions. May I suggest the following quadruple feature, curated by myself:
…featuring conniptive classics from the 1970s through the 2000s…
Ruthless People — 1980s
Falling Down — 1990s
Gran Torino — 2000s
Why, this could even be the basis for yet another AFI superlative list...
8 comments:
Your posts are better when they are more coherent, you're starting to sound too much like Tom.....
Heh heh. For trolls like this, I generally type out the canned response of "your profound ignorance and lack of referents to educated culture, does not constitute any failure in myself".
I'd also say "pearls before swine" but it probably wouldn't get that reference, either.
Seriously, though. Part of the problem we will be facing around here is something not seen here in the States since about 1970 or so, which is to say an immense demographic bulge in the age group of teenagers and very young adults.
And absent sufficient adult engagement, you do in fact wind up with "Lord of the Flies".
Not a troll, just not a fan of the huge rambing meta-posts.....
Content is king and the only reason to bother to communicate.
Anything less amounts to a gorilla grunting periodically so that the rest of the gorillas remember that the first one's there.
On UseNet, we used to call one-liners "mee toooo".
We considered it a symptom of AOL and "endless September".
You can express content in short coherent and cogent articles with the occasional hyper-link to relevant information. For example
Good post
http://campaign.thomashardman.com/2009/03/part-ii-parks-v-recreation-at-county.html
Bad post (I lost interest when we diverted into delusions and suchlike)
http://campaign.thomashardman.com/2009/02/part-1-rousting-rousters-time-to-move.html
Too bad. My point remains. It's bad enough that the stigma of mental illness follows even people who aren't actually mentally ill. It's worse when outside forces compound both the struggles of those who are mentally ill and force them into eternal homelessness. It's worse still when the exact forces that victimize mock the victims and only make it harder for them to start recovery.
That's the thing about exposition.
If people know what you're talking about, they may think you're being overly wordy and covering ground that is already understood. Yet for people who aren't familiar with the subject, immediately launching into jargon without providing some context and background will only cause confusion at best. The only way it could be more baffling for them would be if you were to litter the discussion with undefined acronyms.
I could say something like "market forces disincentivize for MPDU offerings, especially in HOC Section Eight financing space". If you're a certain kind of wonk, that will be clear as a sheet of plate glass. If you're not that kind of wonk, you have no referents. It's incomprehensible jargon.
Thus, sometimes it's necessary to jump around a bit, and intersperse narrative with exposition. Steinbeck used it to great effect. So did Hemingway. So did Vonnegut, for that matter, and it was his style I was after. I could have had Kilgore Trout make an appearance but he was busy down at the corner, panhandling.
Here’s another perspective for our Anonymous blog critic.
I do appreciate the feedback, by the way. Honesty is something I put a premium on in life.
#1: It’s a lowly blog, not a newspaper website or other clearinghouse of valuable nuggets of relevancy. I’ve read various blogs on and off for years and they run the gamut as far as how content-packed and compelling they can be.
#2: Unlike some bloggers, I’m not getting any revenue for this junk. Thus my motivation to tailor the content to the broadest possible audience is not too high these days.
#3: For various reasons I fired the two mental health professionals I was compelled to see a while back. Unfortunately, this fact is reflected in this blog.
#4: In the future I will try to mix things up. Some days the manic logorrhea and verbose pontificating may win out over the coherent and succinct newsiness and cogent analysis though, ’m afraid.
Hey, some days I find reasons to make several blog entries, and then a few days go by with nothing new coming from me.
That could mean a few different things... maybe a whole lot of interesting stuff came across my desk, so to speak. It could mean that a lot of ideas that had been kicking around finally gelled into something writable. Or it could mean that I've had too much coffee. Alternatively, lack of postings could mean I'm in bed with the flu, or maybe there's just nothing interesting happening that I feel like writing up.
Then again, sometimes there are days when I get up first thing in the morning and there's Erin Burnett's Hair (astute comix fans will get the "Zippy the Pinhead" reference) and the next thing you know, I feel compelled to blog about it. (At the present time, I rather pray that she never vanity googles herself and runs across that or I might be in big trouble ;)
Sometimes, though I feel like too much coffee and bad CNBC combine with a bit of a head cold, and things like this erupt into blogspace. Actually, that's a good one to review since this is the week when we start looking inside the box to see in exactly what condition is the Schrodinger Cat of Toxic Assets.
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